[Anchor]

A famous eyewear brand and a major accounting firm have been caught forcing employees to work long hours without pay. They habitually violated the law by abusing the discretionary work system to make staff work beyond the 52-hour workweek without providing overtime pay.

Reporter Jeon Hyeong-u has the story.

[Reporter]

Designers at the eyewear brand Gentle Monster said they worked more than 70 hours a week but did not receive overtime pay because they were under a discretionary work system.

[Person A/Former Gentle Monster Designer (last February): We knew that even if we worked overtime, we wouldn't get paid for it. We were just working constantly without even time to sleep.]

Under the discretionary work system, where the hours agreed upon by labor and management are considered working hours, additional pay for night and holiday work must still be provided.

An inspection by the Ministry of Employment and Labor revealed that IICOMBINED, the operator of Gentle Monster, failed to pay 430 million won in night, holiday, and overtime allowances to 464 employees, including those under the discretionary work system.

There were 115 cases of employees working beyond the 52-hour workweek, and it was also confirmed that a pregnant employee was made to work at night without authorization from the Labor Ministry.

Labor law violations were also found at Samjong KPMG, where concerns of overwork-related deaths were raised after two accountants in their 30s passed away last November and this past March.

It was found that the firm failed to pay a total of 630 million won in night, holiday, and overtime allowances to approximately 2,600 employees while operating under the discretionary work system.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor issued a corrective order to both companies to pay the unpaid wages and imposed fines of 5.8 million won and 14 million won, respectively.

IICOMBINED stated that it has completed the payment of the unpaid allowances, and Samjong KPMG also stated that it plans to immediately comply with the inspection results.

[Kim Sang-eun, Lawyer/Chair of the Labor Committee at Minbyun - Lawyers for a Democratic Society: To prevent the abuse of the discretionary work system from recurring, it is necessary to make it a principle to impose criminal penalties for wage arrears.]

Starting today, July 1, the Ministry of Employment and Labor has launched a planned inspection of 100 workplaces across the country suspected of excessive working hours.

(Video Editing: Ahn Yeo-jin)